


Winter is for... what?

by Beauteousmajesty



Series: On discovery [18]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Christmas, M/M, Messing Around, None of my Nordics are cishet, winter sport
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-26 21:45:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19777057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beauteousmajesty/pseuds/Beauteousmajesty
Summary: The Nordics have two settings in winter, neither of them are beneficial to their governments but they certainly are amusing.Winter sport is far more fun when you don’t really know the rules and you can’t die.





	Winter is for... what?

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so this is a mess. But whatever. Everyone seems to be writing Christmas stuff atm even though it’s midsummer.  
> I found this half finished so I finished it, no idea what the original point of it was but oh well.

When the long dark of winter came, with it always came exhaustion for those nations whose lands barely saw the winter sun. Iceland spent his darkest days with only a single hour of sunlight to distinguish them. Parts of Norway, particularly Svalbard, got nothing, only weeks of long, cold dark.

In the past, they’d built a fire and sat out the winter, huddled with their people as the snows came. The dark times made them tired, so they used to spend most of the winter months drowsing.

In more modern times, things worked on a more linear timeline. They could no longer rest after the harvest was brought in. They had post-industrial economies which didn’t stop for winter.

Electricity was convenient for them, allowing for some measure of light to fill their dark days. Christmas, too, came in the midst of the darkness and filled their lands with twinkling lights. None of them were particularly religious anymore but they went through the motions of faith that had been drilled into them for centuries.

When Christmas came, they gathered together as a Nordic family, braving the dangerous waters of old disputes to spend the day in warmth and light. For most of the late twentieth century it was a given that Norway would be asleep by mid afternoon on Christmas Day. Iceland presumed it was a plot to get out of washing up - if it was, it always worked. Denmark and Sweden tended to wash up, with Finland occasionally having to go in and threaten them into not arguing - a power that he’d gained over time.

With the other three thus preoccupied, Iceland often gave in and joined his brother in sleeping away the afternoon, whilst the children played with their presents.

The constant movement of modernity disrupted their winter semi-hibernation, however. Particularly after their discovery. People wanted to see them all year round. Their media outlets loved to talk to them, and even other nations’ journalists sometimes sought them out. Historians and researchers also held interest in talking with them, and scrutinising every aspect of their lives. All this interaction fragmented the routine.

When Norway and Denmark went to things together in winter, Denmark brought coffee to try and keep Norway awake. Winter interviews often ended, however, with Norway fast asleep on Denmark as whoever they had been talking to looked on in bemusement.

It wasn’t just the climate that factored into Norway’s winter lethargy, he’d never fully recovered from the nasty case of plague he’d caught in the 1300s, which had prompted what Norwegians called ‘the 400 years night’. Sleeping was something that Norway excelled at.

Iceland tried to stay awake for most of the winter, often failing but not as willing as his brother to sleep and let his government deal with things for him. This often resulted in Iceland asleep in his government buildings as the office workers tiptoed around him.

Sometimes at Nordic family meetings, the conversation would lull into silence as all the attendees drifted into sleep in front of the fire in whoever was hosting’s house. Nordic winter was a time to sleep.

The exception to that rule was when the winter sports competitions were. With winter sports came stronger family rivalries as they all performed far better in winter sports than summer ones. Norway held the most Winter Olympic medals out of anyone in the world, and he was very proud of it. A sure fire way to snap him out of winter indolence was to challenge him at skiing.

Finland was a demon on the ice hockey rink. His team lived to defeat Sweden’s team. Sweden gave as good as he got in hockey matches, although his team sometimes took pity on Denmark’s floundering team and helped them train.

Denmark didn’t see as much snow as the others and he had no mountains for skiing. So he was mostly left behind when the others did winter sports. But he was happy to watch them. Sometimes he skated, not with the aggressive sprints of the hockey player, but with the languid grace of a figure skater who wasn’t trying. Years of practice had paid off for him.

Iceland was happy to do whatever would give him the most adrenaline, still seeking excitement in the world, still a child at heart. He could try tricks that would kill a human if they went even slightly wrong without really worrying. He could throw himself down mountains on a snowboard, only stopping when he reached the bottom, laughing all the way. He could achieve phenomenal speeds on a luge track, to the horror of whoever owned it.

They took winter and made it competitive; family bonding in the worst way. The first Winter Olympics after the reveal was a little messy, with each of the big nations in winter sport trying to outdo each other after hours.

Canada and Finland organised an interNation ice hockey tournament, each forming a team of players competent on the ice. Denmark was permitted only to film it, as both team captains considered him a liability.

The result of this competition was messy. They broke nearly all of the rules, some of which people had previously thought it would be impossible to break. It was for the best that Hungary, as the referee, was heavily armed and willing to intimidate anyone who disagreed with her.

Nobody quite understood why Finland threw his prosthetic arm at Russia halfway through, it achieved nothing, but he seemed to enjoy it, so they let it slide (across the ice for Denmark to rescue). They broke a few sticks and launched a few too many pucks at the watching crowd.

They weren’t actually sure who won in the end, or how to respond to potential rule breaches (the rules didn’t account for magic, strangely enough), so they decided to call it a draw and disappear to one of the bars in the athletes village, where Denmark posted the video.

Rather unfairly to their athletes, it ended it being the most watched Olympics video available, going viral within minutes, as it was greeted with a mixture of delight and horror by newsreaders worldwide.

The Nordics slept through the fallout that filled the early morning, asleep in a pile in the corner of the bar, undisturbed by a vaguely concerned staff.

They were better supervised at the next few international sporting events, and international matches were officially arranged for them, to their delight. They weren’t good at most of the games they played, but they were competitive and willing to break rules, and they had a lot of fun doing just that.

By the end of any international competition, media found nations dressed in a mishmash of other nations’ team kit, ready to completely wreck the rules of whichever game they’d been permitted to play next.

Nations also sometimes joined in with singles events, not as competitors, but just to have a go. It made going to events more fun for them, and for people who didn’t like sport. Watching Iceland go down a luge track on a bin lid was a highlight of one Winter Olympics.

The shenanigans did result in more interviews, however. People wanted to know what they were up to at each event, whether they’d be joining in in some capacity or just going to watch. ‘Wait and see’ was Norway’s go to answer, whereas Denmark was always happy to explain his plans to whoever wanted to listen to him.

It made winter easier to stay awake for, but the Nordics often still spent weeks at a time asleep, waiting for the sun to return. Their peoples got accustomed to having their nations disappear in winter save for weird sporting appearances.

Their social media showed them spending more time together through the winters, as the photos became something more of a winter wonderland. For all the joy of the aesthetic pictures Denmark posted through the winter, none of them surpassed the popularity of a grainy selfie he posted of both Norway and Iceland asleep on him, one arm wrapped around Norway, as the other nation curled into him in sleep. Iceland was using him as a backrest, as he sprawled over Denmark’s sofa in sleep. In the middle of it all Denmark was smiling, not at the camera, but at his family, as he held them close.


End file.
